Young Namibian makes satellite booster from scrap

A young inventor from northern Namibia has innovatively used scrap material to build a satellite dish booster to enhance people’s internet connectivity, especially those in the rural areas where the signal can be significantly weaker than normal

Josua Nghaamwa. Photo: New Era Namibia

Inspired by Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, Josua Nghaamwa first made his mark by creating what could be termed a cellphone, using scrap radio parts and toy telephone parts. Even though his device used radio signals, it could reach a cellphone over 1000km away.

Now, four years after that effort, the 22 year-old is back with a home-made foil satellite dish booster, which aims to deliver fast internet access to the widest population at the lowest usage and capital cost and create a strong competitive business.

His invention is designed to fit snugly in a laptop bag and has a USB port that allows user to connect their modem or cellphone to enhance their connectivity speeds. It also has wireless capabilities that support Wi-fi and Bluetooth.

“The prototype satellite dish is a device which is built with foil, designed to improve internet speed and poor availability of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) signal, especially in rural areas were digital communication is at its fancy” says Nghaamwa.

The young scientist, who once almost burned his uncle’s house to the ground in an experiment gone wrong, says the inventions bring a lot of excitement, however, there needs to be complementary encouragement in terms of state funding to make the projects usable. He gives the example of platforms like Facebook and Twitter, “Many of these social networks that we use today were experiments from other young people in other countries,”.

Despite the challenges he faces, Nghaamwa encourages his peers to invent things that could make life much easier.

Nghwaamwa has since obtained a patent certificate for his invention from Namibia’s Department of Trade and Industry.